SAPHIRE 8 Software Project Plan

This project is being conducted at the request of the DOE and the NRC. The INL has been requested by the NRC to improve and maintain the Systems Analysis Programs for Hands-on Integrated Reliability Evaluation (SAPHIRE) tool set concurrent with the changing needs of the user community as well as staying current with new technologies. Successful completion will be upon NRC approved release of all software and accompanying documentation in a timely fashion. This project will enhance the SAPHIRE tool set for the user community (NRC, Nuclear Power Plant operations, Probabilistic Risk Analysis (PRA) model developers) by providing improved Common Cause Failure (CCF), External Events, Level 2, and Significance Determination Process (SDP) analysis capabilities. The SAPHIRE development team at the Idaho National Laboratory is responsible for successful completion of this project. The project is under the supervision of Curtis L. Smith, PhD, Technical Lead for the SAPHIRE application. All current capabilities from SAPHIRE version 7 will be maintained in SAPHIRE 8. The following additional capabilities will be incorporated: • Incorporation of SPAR models for the SDP interface. • Improved quality assurance activities for PRA calculations of SAPHIRE Version 8. • Continue the current activities for code maintenance, documentation, and user support for the code

The project management process of planning and budgeting in public construction projects

Budgeting and scheduling are central elements in all projects through diverse estimates that are defining the level of project outcome success. It is therefore relevant to study how large public construction agencies apply cost and time scheduling in their projects. The study objective is firstly, to comprehend the process of cost and time scheduling in the initial phases of a project. Secondly, to discover which factors stimulate budget and deadline increases in publicly funded construction projects. Applied data collection is based on semi-structured interviews with publicly agency employed project and property managers. Findings demonstrate that too early decision making disrupt the deadline and total cost in the client briefing stage. Due to lack of clear defined project scope and user requirements are too optimistic. The subsequent project stages are thus pushed by an earlier decided deadline and budget, where following complications within the project organizations were found to stimulate budget and scheduling increases.</p